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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Ooh Cashmere! Vogue 1098 Anne Klein Jacket

This bright blue cashmere/wool jacket is what I've been working on over the evenings of the last week. It's by no means perfect but I'm rather happy with it... it even garnered unsolicited compliments in the office.

You won't recognise the dress, but it's from another Vogue pattern, and previously posted here.

I think this jacket looks good draped over the concrete ...

I took my outdoor pictures today at lunchtime, out at Barangaroo. Not many people around except joggers and tourists wandering too far past Darling Harbour, and interesting views of sea, concrete and sky. The office felt a long way away - I must do more of these interesting lunchtime walks.

And yes, I went a bit overboard with these pictures, but it was fun and there weren't too many witnesses.

And I returned to the office de-stressed!

Modifications:
You may have observed that my large buttons are non-functioning. You may also have observed that they are a little off-centre. There is a reason! On Saturday night my sewing machine refused to complete the button holes. I had practised on bits of doubled over, interfaced fabric - but I hadn't taken into account the impact of the seam down the centre front and also the angled seam. Both of these annoyed my button hole foot, and made the fabric way too thick for it to cope with. On Sunday afternoon I unpicked the mess and considered using a buttonhole service (if they could put handsome buttonholes on top of my mess - could they?). On Sunday evening I decided I couldn't wait, and decided I'd use platters (ie large buttons) to cover the mess with big press studs underneath. The buttons had to be positioned to cover the buttonhole marks, and these of course were off-centre because that way the fastened buttons would have been centred!

The other modification I made was to remove the collar. This was Jacquie's idea, and I think it was a brilliant one - it makes the jacket look more up-to-date. I did take the opportunity to cut, fuse, trim (for that extra bit of turn of the cloth allowance) and sew the collar pieces so that I could practise some of Sherry's techniques and see what it looked like:

I guess that's a proper collar! Maybe I should finish the edges and attach fastenings so it can be a detachable collar... hmmm don't think I can be bothered, although the idea does interest me in a theoretical way.

Sewing and Fit
The jacket looks like this on the pattern envelope:

It goes together nicely and seems pretty fool-proof (eg it already takes into account a certain amount of turn-of-the-cloth allowance for the collar and provides different sized upper and lower collar pieces), but I found the sleeves and body a bit short on me. The point where the main sleeve pieces join to the shaped "cuff" feels too high - I would have thought this should happen at elbow length, but it seems to happen an inch or so higher. Actually they look this way on the pattern model too! I'm still pretty pleased with the jacket, and it probably fits better than most of my RTW jackets.

Fabric
I used a cashmere / wool / poly mix for this jacket, and wow did it feel luxurious to sew with - like moving a knife through whipped cream. I found I only needed about 1.6m of 150cm wide fabric for the jacket in a size 12, although the suggested amount of fabric for size 12 is 1.8m - so this is relatively affordable to make in nice fabric compared to a coat. My lining is just a regular lining, nothing special. At the time I was planning the jacket I couldn't get the matching turquoise lining so I chose the green as something I thought would complement the turquoise and go with other colours I wear. Both the outer and lining fabrics came from Tessuti fabrics last year, and the buttons came from Tessuti a few days ago.

Stunning. Although the jacket looks at its most marvellous on you, I particularly appreciate the photo where it is posing with the life preserver ring :), gorgeous colours. I did not notice any off centre buttons until I squinted closely after you pointed it out - great save!

It is a beautiful jacket, which looks just as good, actually even better draped on you than on the concrete. And in one of my favorite colors of blue. I have this pattern, but had never considered making it in a winter wool fabric.

Thanks everyone! I am loving it - if the wind-chill factor wasn't making it so cold here I'd be wearing this heaps, and it's the kind of easily assembled jacket that gives you the confidence to consider more jackets... maybe even coats...